Page 9 BALOO'S BUGLE
FOCUS
Cub Scout Roundtable Leaders’ Guide
Spring is just around the corner!! With spring comes all the wonders of nature’s rebirth – flowers bloom, trees bud, birds are full of activity. In every tree, we can see Our Feathered Friends busily building nests and hear them sharing their sings with the world. Use this time of year to help your Cub Scouts discover everything the Our Feathered Friends have to share. Learn about the birds in your area, also discover species that live in other parts of the world. Go outdoors with your Cub Scouts and look around to observe all the glories of birds.
CORE VALUES
Cub Scout Roundtable Leaders’ Guide
Some of the purposes of Cub Scouting developed through this month’s theme are:
ü Spiritual Growth, Boys will experience the wonders of nature.
ü Personal Achievement, Boys will feel a sense of accomplishment as they learn about birds and complete badge requirements.
ü Fun and Adventure, Learn about birds, their habitats and how they help our environment.
The core value highlighted this month is:
ü Compassion, Cub Scouts learn to be considerate and concerned for the well-being of others by learning about birds and how they contribute to nature.
Can you think of others??? Hint – look in your Cub Scout Program Helps. It lists different ones!! All the items on both lists are applicable!! You could probably list all twelve if you thought about it!!
COMMISSIONER’S CORNER
Springtime – Get them outside!! The time for indoor meetings is over. Start getting them out looking for birds. Looking for buds on trees and plants. (Maybe not in Marquette, MI, yet where my former DE grew up but in most places). Play Tag, Hide and Seek, do relay races in your yard. Look for nests and birds. Find a birding club to help you. The NJ Audubon Society has programs for all ages. Find your local Audubon Society on the web and ask them!! Check out the websites in the back. The names tell you they have lots of outdoor activities for your Cubs!!
Pow Wow Books – My collection of current Pow Wow CDs sis growing rapidly. Thank you all so much!! If you sent me one and have not received a Commissioner Dave CD in trade, please E-mail me. I received the new San Gabriel Valley – Long Beach Area-Verdugo Hills CD and it appears to be another masterpiece. Thank you Julie. And a Big Heap How to Julie as she is receiving the Silver Beaver!!
It is amazing as I go through the CDs. Some like SG-VH-LBA’s, Baltimore’s and Sam Houston’s show so much work and careful editing. And others appear to be thrown together quickly. I received one last year with themes from a different year!! And one this year with articles and items OCR scanned but not proof read. Typos everywhere – 1’s that should be I’s, misspellings with odd symbols in place of letters and repeated items (probably scanned two old Pow Wow Books and put them both into one without checking). Think about it. - After the Pow Wow is over the participants only have two things – their memories and the CD. If they like the CD and can use it easily, it will help sell that person on returning and that person will sell others on going. If it is messy and riddled with typos and such, what will the person think about the Pow Wow after the memories fade?
Walk Thru the Bible Seminar – I attended a Walk Thru the Old Testament Seminar as part of the LCMS, NJ District’s drive to increase Bible Literacy. It was fantastic!! A highly energized leader had us all up singing and shouting and making the signs for the Old Testament Books. The seminar does no philosophy, does not preach a religion. It simply takes all the pieces of the Bible you have learned over the years and puts them in order for you. .You learn when things (e.g. Joshua attacked Jericho) occurred and who was there and where they are in the Bible. If you get a chance – go and participate and bring your kids!! Check them out at www.walkthru.org . How many books in the Old Testament?? How many letters in Old? (3), Testament? (9). How many Books – 39!! I knew that because my combination lock for Boy Scout camp had a 39 in the combo and my Mother used that as part of the memory trick she taught me to remember it.
National makes a patch for every Cub Scout Monthly theme. This is the one for this theme. Check them out at www.scoutstuff.org
Months with similar themes to
Our Feathered Friends
David D. in Illinois
Be Kind to Birds / January / 1940Cub Scout Bird Watchers / April / 1956
Cub Scout Bird Watchers / May / 1986
Cub Scout Bird Watchers / April / 1988
Cub Scout Bird Watchers / June / 1993
Cub Scout Bird Watchers / April / 1997
Other months with Nature Themes that have helpful material
Nature / July / 1942Back Yard Month / July / 1943
Nature / June / 1945
Nature / August / 1948
Nature / August / 1951
Mother Nature's Backyard / May / 1953
Cub Scout Beekeepers / October / 1955
Cub Scout Naturalist / September / 1956
Mother Nature's Back Yard / July / 1959
Cub Scout Naturalists / April / 1964
Mother Natures Backyard / April / 1966
Mother Nature's Backyard / May / 1970
Growing, Flying, Crawling / May / 1971
Cub Scout Naturalists / April / 1975
Bugs & Things / April / 1984
Back to Nature / August / 1987
Bugs and Things / May / 1992
Bugs `n Things / June / 1995
Bugs & Things / April / 2000
THOUGHTFUL ITEMS FOR SCOUTERS
Thanks to Scouter Jim from Bountiful, Utah, who prepares this section of Baloo for us each month. You can reach him at or through the link to write Baloo on www.usscouts.org. CD
Roundtable Prayer
Cub Scout Roundtable Leaders’ Guide
We give thanks for our families, our blessings, our Scouts, and all creations of nature. We hope to learn to esteem all created things, and encourage our Scouts to do the same. Amen.
In Honor of Birds
I have a Scouting friend who will not wear a feather when he dresses as Akela in Indian costume. Feathers have special meaning to the various nations of Native Americans. Birds are an important part of the creation story for the Pahute Indians. They built the dry land on which all other animals came to live. The spread the seeds over the earth that would be the grass, berries and trees that the other animals would need to live. In honor of their work, the birds were allowed to always be carriers of seeds, and the gods gave them bright plumage and songs so they could make the beautiful. As we honor our feathered friends, let us remember those that came before us and walked softly on the earth.
Bird Quotes
I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs. JosephAddison
It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.
Aesop
Pay the thunder no mind – listen to the birds.
EubieBlake
Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west. Elizabeth BarrettBrowning
Today I am sure no one needs to be told that the more birds a yard can support, the fewer insects there will be to trouble the gardener the following year. ThalassaCruso
A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. JamesDent
I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven. EmilyDickinson
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Ralph WaldoEmerson
Words are heavy like rocks, they weigh you down. If birds could talk they wouldn’t be able to fly.
RosalieGraber
The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s Heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
Dorothy FrancesGurney
Give a drink of water as alms to the birds which go forth at morning, and deem that they have a better right than men [to thy charity]. For their race brings not harm upon thee in any wise, when thou fearest it from thine own race. Ma'Arri
The world has different owners at sunrise . . . Even your own garden does not belong to you. Rabbits and blackbirds have the lawns; a tortoise–shell cat who never appears in daytime patrols the brick walls, and a golden–tailed pheasant glints his way through the iris spears.
Anne MorrowLindbergh
There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.
RobertLynd
It's a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries.
John EdwardMasefield
hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof! In such places standing alone on themountain-top it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make — leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents or piled stone —we all dwell in a house of one room — the world with the firmament for its roof — and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving anytrack.
John Muir
Every year back spring comes, with nasty little birds, yapping their fool heads off.
DorothyParker
To me, the garden is a doorway to other worlds; one of them, of course, is the world of birds. The garden is their dinner table, bursting with bugs and worms and succulent berries. AnneRaver
Garden: One of a vast number of free outdoor restaurants operated by charity–minded amateurs in an effort to provide healthful, balanced meals for insects, birds and animals.
Henry Beard &Roy McKie
The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. It was good for the skin to touch the earth and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth. Their tipis were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The birds that flew into the air came to rest upon the earth and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.
Chief LutherStanding Bear
What is the singing of birds, or any natural sound, compared with the voice of one we love?
Henry DavidThoreau
The birds I heard today, which, fortunately, did not come within the scope of my science, sang as freshly as if it had been the first morningof creation. Henry DavidThoreau
There are 8,600 species of birds in the world today. They are found everywhere. Birds play a vital role in the balance of nature. They eat insects, pests and small animals. Fruit eating birds are best for scattering seeds for these plants. Seed eating birds digest seeds and in so doing keep millions of weeds from the earth. . . . Birds have between 1,000 and 25,000 feathers.
unknown
An estimated 63 million people are feeding birds in their yards. Research by Metz Farms Wildlife Feeding Specialists of Grand Rapids, Michigan, also shows that $2.3 billion is spent on birdseed each year. unknown
Poor indeed is the garden in which birds find no homes. Abram L.Urban
Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
Henryvan Dyke
In this sequestered nook how sweet
To sit upon my orchard seat
And birds and flowers once more to greet. . . .
WilliamWordsworth
I May Never See Tomorrow
Heart of America Council
I may never see tomorrow
There’s no written guarantee
And things that happened yesterday
Belong to history.
I cannot predict the future
I cannot change the past
I have just the present moment
I must treat it as my last.
I must use the moment wisely
For it will soon pass away
And be lost to me forever
As part of yesterday.
I must exercise compassion
Help the fallen to their feet
BE a friend unto the friendless
Make an empty life complete.
The unkind things I do today
May never be undone
Any friendships that I fail to win
May nevermore be won.
I may not have another chance
On bended knee to pray,
And I thank God with humble heart
For giving me this day.
Why the Birds Wear Bright Plumage
Pahute Indian Legend
Scouter Jim from Bountiful, Utah
Why the North Star Stands Still and Other Indian Legends, William R. Palmer, Published by the Zion Natural History Association, Zion National Park, Springdale Utah]
A Long time ago-long ago-so long ago that no Indian can remember, and no tree can remember, and no rock can remember; so long ago that there were no Indians and there were no trees, and the rocks had not been made, there were only Tobats and Shinob, the two gods. Tobats and Shinob were first. They made the trees and the rocks and the Indians.
In that time Tobats and Shinob were standing on a tiny speck of land no larger than their feet and everywhere else there was water. They had come to this little island in the water world to see what should be done.
Tobats said to Shinob, "Here is the world we are making, what shall we do next?" Shinob answered, "There is too much water. We must make more land. Tu-weap, the earth, must be on top of the water. It must stand up high above the water so the living things can find it." Tobats said, "Yes, the earth must stand above the water." Then he added, "Go now .and make more earth. Make it stand above the water. Call someone to help."